New and Existing pre-2020 Climate Policies Need to Be Scaled up for Paris Goals

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Article / 23 Oct, 2017

New and Existing pre-2020 Climate Policies Need to Be Scaled up for Paris Goals

The UN has published a new report that draws attention to concrete examples of successful climate policy implementation around the world and how these can be replicated and scaled up between now and 2020.

The “Summary for Policymakers”, published ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn (COP 23, 6 – 17 November) showcases good practices that integrate actions to curb greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the inevitable impact of climate change.

The report also demonstrates that achieving the climate action goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN’s sustainable development goals is a process that is deeply connected.

“The Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals together represent nothing less than a global strategy to prevent our planet’s temperature from reaching disastrous levels and to foster and support resilient and sustainable, low-emissions development for everyone.

To this end, policies need to be set in place now, technologies developed, matured, commercialized and deployed at scale, and practices and behaviors of economic actors need to move ever faster towards low-emission and sustainable business and investment,” says the Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change Patricia Espinosa in a forward to the summary.

The document was prepared based on recommendations from the Technical Expert Meetings on climate change mitigation and adaptation held in May 2017 in Bonn, Germany, and is part of the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action that is working to support Nationally Determined Contributions – National Climate Action Plans – under the Paris Climate Change Agreement and to spur new climate actions between now and 2020.

Hakima El Haite, High-level Champion of Morocco and Minister Delegate to the Minister of Energy, Mines, Water and Environment, and Inia Seruiratu, High-level Champion of Fiji and Minister for Agriculture, Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management and Meteorological Services write at the beginning of the report:

"Through his summary we intend that Parties are provided with the relevant information to fully engage with non-Party stakeholders, and be empowered to scale up and replicate the good-practice policies, actions and initiatives that best fit their national circumstances with a view to enhancing their pre-2020 action. This should pave the way for limiting warming to well below 2 degrees Centigrade and to pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Centigrade. Importantly, it should also help to increase the resilience and adaptive capacity of communities and ecosystems, and lay a strong foundation for more ambitious post-2020 action."